Y2K Citizen's Action Guide: Quotes

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'I cannot be optimistic and I am generally concerned about the possibility of power shortages.... Supermarket supplies may be disrupted....It's clear we can't solve the whole problem, so we have to allow some systems to die so mission-critical systems can work.... Pay attention to the things that are vulnerable in your life and make contingency plans.... Don't panic, but don't spend too much time sleeping, either.'
--Senator Robert Bennett, Chairman of the Senate's Special Committee on the Year 2000 Problem

'This is not a prediction, it is a certainty--there will be serious disruption in the world's financial services industry.... It's going to be ugly.'--The Sunday Times, London

'Failure to achieve compliance with the year 2000 will jeopardize our way of life on this planet for some time to come.'
--Arthur Gross, Chief Information Officer, IRS

'The public faces a high risk that critical services provided by the government and the private sector could be severely disrupted by the year 2000 computing crisis. Financial transactions could be delayed, flights grounded, power lost, and national defense affected.'
--General Accounting Office, U.S. Congress

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'More than one-third of the most important [government] systems won't be fixed in time.'
--House Panel Y2K report, September 1998

'We're concerned about the potential disruption of power grids, telecommunications and banking services.'
--Sherry Burns, CIA

'A few months ago people were talking about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Now the only hope is keeping the world economy from total deterioration. And you get a sense that it is all now truly left to Adam Smith's invisible hand--it's beyond any country's ability, and institution's ability to control.'
--Jeffrey Garten, Dean, Yale School of Management

'The world is working its way through a very difficult period....The circumstances and issues are unprecedented, very complex. People who look for easy answers and guarantees are misguided. (These problems) do not lend themselves to black-and-white views.'
--Robert Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury, Fortune Magazine, Sept. 28, 1998

'...The greatest antidote to worry, whether you're getting ready for spaceflight or facing a problem of daily life, is preparation ...the more you try to envision what might happen and what your best response and options are, the more you are able to allay your fears about the future.'
--Senator John Glenn

'If life is a process of discovering who we are, Y2K is when we find out.'
--Tom Atlee, President, Co-Intelligence Institute

'The Y2K bug provides us with an extraordinary opportunity to ask ourselves the profound questions which have been buried by our wealth and our technology. It is a time for us to ask what we really value and how we can preserve the ecological systems on which all life depends. It is a wonderful time to be alive.'
--Robert Theobald, economist and futurist